January 03, 2010

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The U.S. Government is offering the suspect charged with attempting to bomb an aircraft on Christmas Day, Omar Abdulmutallab, some kind of incentives to share what he knows about Al Qaeda, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said Sunday.

Asked why Abdulmutallab should cooperate given his right, as criminal defendant, to remain silent, Brennan replied: "He doesn't have to but he knows there are certain things that are on the table... if he wants to engage with us in a productive manner, there are ways he can do that."

Asked if Abdulmutallab's willingness to talk changed once he had an attorney, Brennan declined to answer. "I'm not going to address what he did before or after he talked with a lawyer," the adviser said.

Brennan declined to say what criteria are used to decide whether a prisoner should be taken into criminal court or before a military commission. "There are no downsides or upsides in particular cases," he said. "What we're trying to do is make the right determination in particular cases."

Reader Comments (70)

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This guy wasn't the original bad guy. He is the dumb schmuck who didn't know what to do with his life and that left him vulnerable to be manipulated by the real bad guys. This is how terrorists are created. If we torture this guy to get info we can get much more easily we will create more bombers for the future that might get away with it. We already know who the real bad guys are and where they are and the REAL retaliation is already under way. This guy is a schmuk and a nobody. That's why he was sent to be sacrificed.

rolltr - "a deal? Like he's a common criminal. Democrats will never disprove their weakness in defense matters. Just not their nature"
Well... last I heard the U.S.A., rightfully, does not torture. It's illegal. So what would you suggest exactly?
And if some kind of deal or plea bargaining works to bring down a terror network, why not? Are you naive enough to think that by NOT doing a deal there will be less suicide bombers lining up to kill us? Really?
And of course plea bargaining reduces costs in the justice system. I thought conservatives were all about fiscal responsibility?
Ah... your opinion has nothing to do with reality. You're just spreading the "Dems are weak on security" meme. You can crawl back into your hole now, we've heard it all before.

dfuture, that was cute. During congressional testimony, Eric Holder was asked about Navy Seals undergoing waterboarding, Was this torture,? he was asked. Should those who waterboarded Navy Seals be prosecuted for torture? No, he said foolishly, because it was just training, he said.

"Omar, we have a thing called the Federal Witness Protection Program.... we can give you a new identity and name,such as Bob Smith, and move you into a new condo in Beverly Hills" ... Please tell us something ... anything

Of course he needs a deal. He lawyered up ! Obama is such a fool! He thinks these people are criminals, but then again he has socialists and communists in his cabinet, thus how can he tell the good guys from the bad guys?

In order to save lives and unburden an already overburdened citizenry, any sane government would interrogate the hell out of the a-hole. Unfortunately, our so-called government is composed of a bunch of criminally incompetent baboons that put the fabricated rights of foreign terrorists above the real constitutional rights of actual countrymen.

Schmuck or not, this is the guy who tried to murder 300 passengers in a plane and who knows how many others on the ground in his desired crash site. He deserves no pity simply because others manipulated him.
FDR and Lincoln understood that military tribunals were the right venue for people like this. Obama may hold up these two Presidential icons as his role models but every day he demonstrates that he doesn't match up to themin any aspect whatsoever. He is just an empty socialist suit with a jutting chin oratorical stance like Mussolini.

Unbelievable that our leaders would give someone who wanted to kill upwards of 300 people, innocent people a "deal". The more the merrier killed according to this terrorist. Libbies are unable to empathize with their fellow citizens but are able to feel sorry the terrorists. Only when a libbie's loved one is murdered will they understand the pain and the need to fight back - not bend over.

A deal, huh? Liberals are pathetically naive. They actually think they can negotiate with people who think that if they can't convert us to their religion and way of thinking, then they have the right to kill us. What a joke.

The deal should be, Tell us everything and everyone you have ever known, and we won't rip your fingernails out with a pair of pliers. Leave the waterboarding till last. Torture the crap out of him. He belongs to no nation and therefore is not a subject of the Geneva conventions. Make sure we can verify what he says before we agree not to rip his fingers out.

This administration already has the blood of 13 Americans on it's hands because of the Ft Hood terrorist. The weakass liberal PC culture that is cultivated by this bunch of idiots will likely result in the deaths of many more Americans here and abroad. The US reputation as a "Paper Tiger" that the Clinton administration propogated through the same liberal weakness directly contributed to many attacks and planning the attack of 9/11. Sure, 9/11 was executed during Bush's term but we had NO other attacks on US soil until Obama arrived.

Oh, Yeah!!! I can see now how serious Obama believes that we're in a war against Islamic terrorists!!! Utterly pathetic!!!! He should have been sent as an enemy combatant to GITMO and judged before a military tribunal. Am I watching another episode of 'Law and Order' here????

It is a sad day for this once great country when you have Advisors that are this inept.
We used to hold our CIA and some
other secret organizations in such
high esteem. Seems like OBAMA
didn't like anyone to show more
intelligence than he, so he decided to make scaapegoats of these fine men.

Obama just released six hard core yemen terrorists and Brennan says more to come. Brennan the same guy who has praised iran and hezbollah and wants the yemen to have a terrorist rehab center modelled after the failed saudi one. Brennan even praised the failed saudi one even after it was a failure. Brennan who just sent 6 hard core terrorists back to yemen even knowing that a radical yemen cleric was involved in fort hood and yemen elder system is weaker than saudi arabia.

Dear Bob from Virginia, can you comment at all on how pathetic Bush/Cheney were for trying Richard Reid in a civilian court, after he did the exact same thing as this guy?
I'm thinking you should stick with law an order, since you're clearly too uneducated to even remember the last 10 years worth of history.
You might learn something if you watch that TV instead of running your mouth on the net.

Torture the kid to get all the information possible. No Terrorist should be tried in civilian courts. We are at WAR! Why not use club getmo to keep these guys, they want to kill Americans. The Game is not on a level playing field anymore.

Amateur Hour at the White House...a deal? Really - When, Mr Brennan, can we make use of the intel from that deal ?
a) We dodged a bullet due to ineptness and/or lack of technical know-how b) We were fortuanate to have captured a chatty suspect . And, now you have two moral and legal choices. Military arrest or civilian arrest.
1) Non-stop to Guantanamo and we learn all the actionable intel he knows b4 others can be killed, your family, your friends...your countrymen.
Or,
2) Arrest him, Mirandize him, introduce him to his lawyers who in turn advise him to shut up. Then we wait, maybe months, for "a deal".
In that time, people could die.
How could we have elected this man America? How the hell did we get here?

The race is on. Will O's simply be a horrible admin? Will it be the worst in 21st century? Will it be the worst in US history? The worst in Western Civilization?
This guy is good. In less than 9 mos, he's in the running for a couple of titles and we've got 3 +/- years to go. This is a tough one to handicap.

If this is true, this is extremely damaging leak to Obama administration.
This guy didn’t look for gains for his life, he went on to war to kill as many Americans as he can.
The dealers know full well that from the guy side a “deal” is to approach the same goal with greater veracity.

Some people seem to think the only two choices are to (a) let this guy remain silent while his attorney negotiates a sentences and (b) waterboard him.
Back in reality, if he were designated an enemy combatant and shipped to Gitmo (gasp!) he could be questioned indefinitely under the rules of the Army Field Manual just as we might question any other detainee. No rough stuff, but no lawyers, either.

d:
The usual liberal knee jerk response is: 1) make excuses for why the idiot just tried to kill hundreds of people, 2) call Bush names, 3) pretend they know what will turn terrorists into loving family men, 4) apologize to the terrorist because the rulers (monarchs and/or dictators) in HIS country didn't treat him nicely when he was a little boy.
And as far as "torture" goes, waterboarding has never been legally declared to be torture. The only Americans who think it is torture are the Democrats who were trying to get an advantage on Bush.
0bama likes to claim he banned torture. The fact is, torture was already banned, 0bama just unilaterally decided waterboarding was now torture, and gave away a very powerful intelligence-gathering tool.
Just ask Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

d likes to wet himself in public then shout with glee. No intellectual content to contribute to the discussion, just the usual rat troll emotionalism from another 13 year old. Nothing to see there, people.

#
This administration already has the blood of 13 Americans on it's hands because of the Ft Hood terrorist. The weakass liberal PC culture that is cultivated by this bunch of idiots will likely result in the deaths of many more Americans here and abroad. The US reputation as a "Paper Tiger" that the Clinton administration propogated through the same liberal weakness directly contributed to many attacks and planning the attack of 9/11. Sure, 9/11 was executed during Bush's term but we had NO other attacks on US soil until Obama arrived.
Posted By: Jeffers | January 03, 2010 at 03:20 PM
__________
13. Well Bush/Cheney have 3,000 on 9/11 that happened on their watch. You can't lie your way out of it. Talk about not connecting the dots! 3,000 killed. Then 4,500 killed, 30,000 wounded in Iraq for what? They let Richard Reid almost kill hundreds with a shoe bomb. What idiots! After 9/11, how did this guy get a bomb on a plane!? Why wasn't he tortured for more information? Why was he put in a criminal court. Bush/Cheney murdered hundreds of American soldiers sending them to Iraq without body armor!
Your Republican apologists are just supporting Al Queda and the terrorists. You want the U.S. attacked and Americans killed so you can blame Obama. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Cheney and his Arab friends and oil buddies were behind this attack to drive up oil prices. The whole story has not been told here. This guy's father turned him in under Bush/Cheney but he wasn't put on the no fly list. How did that happen? Who in the Bush/Cheney administration made that decision and why?

Deal? The only option this sob should get is orange or lime cool-aid with his waterboard. Obama & Co are so incompetent and so corrupt it is difficult to determine which prevails in any given circumstance.

I am sick of people criticizing the former administration. I didnt vote for Bush but I am tired of people vilifying someone who is no longer in office. So we tortitred people. For all of you people out there who decry torture. Where was your outrage when Blackwater workers were burned alive and hung from the beams of a bridge. Where was it when several americans were beheaded including Daniel Pearl. Where was it when mutilated bodies of our servicemen who had been tortured turned up. You need to save your sympathy for the ones who have died at our enemies hands. I wonder how many terrorist attacks was prevented because of so called torture. Not one terrorist prisoner has died because of torture.

A DEAL?????
OK, if he goes into witness protection with a new identity, he better go work right next to Obama in the oval office, or how about a job as a janitor in Obamas Kids school. But, no, he'll probably be relocated over here at my kids school, or with these idiots at the airport by my house

sameO...sameO...well, Johnnie did it mamma...Johnnie did it too...WaaWaa
Bush is gone...period.
You guys elected this imposter because he had the Cure...not to continue with all the Bush policies you and Obama so railed against!
Cry me a freaking river...that is all you ever do is cry like the sissies you are.
It's time for bed now johnnie.

It's December 1941. A Japanese pilot who was shot down after allegedly dropping a bomb down the stack of the USS Arizona is captured. The Honolulu Police have him in custody and are negotiating with him for information concerning the alleged assault he may have committed. The suspect has been provided with a lawyer and is presumed innocent until proven guilty. President Roosevelt assures us that we are all safe and that security measures are being reviewed.

Of course we want to find out everything we can from this criminal - his bosses are likely to organize more attempts on the lives of Americans. Even the Pentagon and the CIA have said that more credible information can be obtained without torture, so those sadists among the bloggers here should go back to pulling tails off lizards for their kicks.
Obama is using his smarts and his resources to protect the American people regardless of political popularity. I much prefer his serious, understated style to the saber-rattling of the Bush administration which got us into this mess.

He is not a U.S. citizen! Why does he deserve the Constitutional rights that I have? Why must we be sooo politically correct? Who is going to be on the jury of his peers, he has no peers in the U.S.? No deal send him to GITMO until they close it, yeah right.

With Health Care, Afghanistan, the Stimulus Package to get the economy out of a tail spin, The Bank and Auto Bail Outs, Climate Change all in one year. I would be happy with 50% in December of 2009. You have to make the tuff decisions and Obama has not shied away.

With Health Care, Afghanistan, the Stimulus Package to get the economy out of a tail spin, The Bank and Auto Bail Outs, Climate Change all in one year. I would be happy with 50% in December of 2009. You have to make the tuff decisions and Obama has not shied away.

After listening to Gloria Borger's interview with Mr. Brennan,I have a better understanding of we'll never defeat the terrorist.Mr. Brennan said we (the US intelligence) didn't have enough clarity to stop Ft. Hood and Christmas day bombing attempt. Tell Mr. Breenan in the nuclear age we'll all be dead if we wait until he sees a smoking gun or a mushroom cloud.Get this guy out of there before it's too late.

The decision to treat Jihadis as common criminals is going to hurt the Democrats very badly in the 2010 elections. The coming spectacle in New York is going to make the American people very, very angry. Bad enough that they try to kill our children, but providing them with a soapbox to tell the world that our children are bad people who deserve to die is just amazing. The voters are thinking of a gallows or a firing squad for this Nigerian fellow, but the Democrats are already into plea bargaining. The price of placating the hard Left is going to be very high for the Democrats in 2010.

i must say that i agree with giving this man a representative...if he needs an interpreter to hear that he is going to be executed within 72 hours! this kid is too young and stupid to have a great deal of marketable intellignece from yemen. the AQ crime bosses in yemen have better sense than to sacrifice anyonf of use. bring the fatted calf for slaughter!!!

Our government makes no effort to protect her citizens-she prefers to bestow unwarranted rights and protections upon our self-avowed enemies (who have declared open war against us). Our citizens need to learn to protect themselves-big government is here and is determined not to help.

So if a terrorist is captured overseas in the arena of conflict he is treated as a enemy combatant but if he caught on US soil attempting to bomb and kill over 200 people he is treated as a defendant.
This is not right!

I've seen some nutty performances from liberals but this one was even nuttier than Pelosi's news conference where she discussed not being briefed by the CIA.
That a terrorist, who is committed to Jihad and martyrdom, would entertain a "plea bargain" to rat out his buddies is one of the most ludicrous things I have ever heard.
Currently, his charges should be attempted murder (300 counts), plus all the related terrorist charges. What are we going to do --- reduce the charges to 150? Put him in the witness protection program? Offer him life so he can avoid martyrdom??
How do these people sleep at night?

It is absurd, unprecedented and obscene, that America at war should be forced to offer incentives to a terrorist who just tried to kill 300 people, this to coax have from him vital war information: his confederates and such other terrorist plans that he knows about. That terrorists captured in the course of murder should also be accorded Constitutional rights is again unprecedented. O'bama should read the rules of war (and the Constitution) as they arose from World War II.
The argument that if we torture this man (actually, he was willing to talk, and did talk) we will simply create additional terrorists is lame and absurd. If slapping him around a bit will save Americans from death, then we should roll up our sleeves. It is irrational to think that being kind to killers will create such good will in those who want to murder us that they will desist. For this truth, one need only read the history of Palestianian atrocities since the creation of Isael. (Glazov, United In Hate, is a great book).
Does anyone remember the fire bombing of Tokyo or Dresden, the atomic bombs at Hyroshima and Nagasaki, the carpet bombing of Germany. Needless to say, war is terrible, but the object, so many seem to have forgot, is to win. If we had accorded the Germans, (its army for the most part acted with honor and wore uniforms in battle) we would all probably be speaking German now and recalling Jews as one might the memory of unicorns.
Wake up Americans!

Offer him a deal to make him talk? Yeah, that'll work. Let's coddle the guy who tried to kill American's. The poor lonely kid who had no friends and no one to talk to and turned to Al Queda for some commoradory?? Whether he is the mastermind or not, he attempted to kill people - end of story. You can't humanize these killers. The MSM made excuses for the Fort Hood shooter, now we offer a deal to this one? Give me a break.
Moron didn't count on his homemade bomb malfunctioning. And what if it didn't? What if he did kill 300+ people? Would they still be trying to humanize him and make us feel sorry for him?
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time...
This is absolutely ridiculous.

I imagine what the deal is. Obama apologizes for all the bad America does, Michelle tells him that for the "second time I am proud to be an American" then Obama gives him a first class ticket to Yemen.

To hear Brennan rationalize this, it sounds like most Obamanites don't believe a person has reached the "age of reason" until age 40. This will be the new knock-kneed left liberal mantra, replacing the ever popular "poverty creates frustrated terrorists" b.s. narrative.
The reason this guy got through is because of another Jamie Gorelick "wall."---you know, the one that was supposed to be taken down after the 9-11 commission?

This guy and the other guys that perpetrate suicide bombings have no concern for human life and do not even value their own life.
Therefore, why should we value their life? I say beat the living crap out of them and then throw them in solitary confinement for the duration. We don't even tell them which direction Mecca is.
Giving this guy a lawyer is a total waste of time and money.

So the Administration’s policy is to negotiate with a terrorist and worse yet, with the terrorist’s lawyer. He will be offered less time, parole, a window cell, etc. in order to encourage him to tell us who his handlers were, who the others were who are in line (according to the terrorist before he lawyered up) to bomb our airlines.
The Obama administration has abandoned the American people and common sense in order to pursue a policy of closing a terrorist prison in Cuba and satisfying their hard left base. They remain committed to return terrorists to Yemen in spite of no government to hand them off to and high return to terrorism rate to date.
The message to terrorists of this policy is clear: Bomb civilian targets and get captured in the US and you will be able to negotiate with a US-paid lawyer and you will get a trial where you can make the case against the great Satan.
Recommend those of you with a lick of sense ask your Senator to offer a resolution to demand handing the terrorist over to DOD and to change his status to unlawful enemy combatant.

We should have waterboarded him right away before letting him lawyer up and allowing him to shut up. Even though info from waterboarding might be inadmissable in court, that info might be used by our intelligence community to prevent further terror attacks.

Someone on here said "waterboard him to death." How do you waterboard someone to death when waterboarding is only the simulated sensation of drowning? Waterboarding does not involve being dunked in water...look up a description. Someone also mentioned the fact that it has been done to members of the military as part of their training. This is so they can learn to withstand that sensation without panicking, knowing that although it's beyond unpleasant, it does not cause death or permanent injury.
I have a better idea. Let's continue with one of the other methods of torture that came to light when all those Gitmo photos were released. Let's make him sit on the floor, then scare him with a big dog. Call me inhumane.